Saturday, September 22, 2007

Bible Verse for today

I don't bother to read the Bible much these days. I should but I don't.

But God has funny ways to reach out to me. I'm reading the last chapter of O'Rourke's book, "Eat the Rich" - which is mindnumbingly boring at some points.

He's not a Christian. And as he sarcastically confesses - only attends church once a year to see the Easter Bunny.

Then he concludes his book and wow... there's God... well sort of.

Most of the world's economy were ruined because idealist people tried to make it fair, namely those run by the socialists and communists. But there in the Bible, is an admonition against such a political system.

"As a foundation for a political system, fairness may be no virtue at all. ... The first nine commandements concerns theological principles and social law: Thou shalt not make graven images, steal, kill, etc.. Then there's the Tenth Commandment: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, wife, servant, cattle nor anything else that belongs to him. Here are God's basic rules about how we should live, a very brief list of sacred obligations and solemn moral precepts, and right at the end of it is, "Don't be jealous that your neighbor's has better stuff than you."

What is that doing in there? Why would God, with just ten things to tell Moses, choose, as one of them, jealousy over property? And yet, think about how important to the well-being of a community this Commandment is. If you want a donkey, if you want a pot roast, if you want a Lambrogini, if you want a nicer looking house, don't bitch about what the people across the street have. Go get your own.

The Tenth Commandment sends a message to socialists, to egalitarians, to people obsessed with fairness, to all politicians - and to everyone else who believes that wealth should be redistributed. And the message is clear: Go to hell.